Randomly

Chapter 23

Steve felt Charlie become a dead weight in his arms as they emerged from the fireplace in the storeroom break room in Romania. He didn't waste a moment and laid his lover on the floor, while Bill left to fetch the reserve's on-call medic. The former military man tore off the wounded man's T-shirt when he saw a red stain on it, then undid the bandages - as he'd suspected, the wounds had reopened, the magical transports had undone what the mediwizards had done. He removed his own shirt and used it to compress the wounds. The pain created by his action brought Charlie back to him and made him groan in pain.

"Hey Cha, it's gonna be okay, okay? Your brother's gone to get a doctor, he'll get you back on your feet."

The dragon caretaker groaned again, but his eyes were already closing.

"No! Look at me Cha, look at me!"

The blue eyes landed on Steve, who smiled at him.

"It's okay, stay with me."

The truth was he was terrified, Charlie shouldn't feel this bad, otherwise the doctors at Honolulu Hospital wouldn't have given the okay for him to come out. The minutes that passed until Bill returned with Jackub, one of Charlie's friends whom Steve had met on several occasions, seemed like hours, but he kept talking to the injured man to keep him awake.

Jackub asked him to step aside and moved his wand over Charlie as Steve took his hand in his. Bill had taken out the potions donated by the hospital and was summarizing what he knew about his little brother's condition. The doctor ordered Steve to make Charlie drink some of the vials while he continued to cast healing spells. When he finally lowered his wand, he smiled reassuringly at the other two men.

"He'll be alright. Let him sleep, put him on a stretcher and levitate him home."

He then gave instructions on administering potions and changing bandages. Steve and Bill thanked him warmly before he left to fetch the stretcher.

"Put on a T-shirt," ordered Bill with a smile.

¨Why should I? Do you mind?" replied the dark-haired man as he walked away.

¨We're not in Hawaii anymore, people don't go shirtless here. Where are you going?¨

¨To wash my hands. I don't want to get blood everywhere. I love your brother, but not enough to dye my stuff with his blood.¨

¨Finally, some good news!"

Steve rolled his eyes with a smirk. He liked his brother-in-law's repartee. He came back with clean hands and took the T-shirt Bill had somehow pulled out of one of the reduced suitcases, and put it on just before Jackub returned. Jackub levitated the wounded man onto the stretcher and left Bill in charge of levitating the stretcher to Charlie's house. He informed them that he would come by the next day, once his shift would be over, to check on his condition.

The two men made the journey in silence, night was already falling and few people were on the streets, and were home in barely ten minutes. Bill laid Charlie on his bed, returned the suitcases to their normal size, pushed them into a corner of the room with a flick of his wand and announced that he was going to the international floo service to inform his parents of the situation. This type of floo didn't allow wizards to be transported, the distance was too great, but it did allow them to talk to each other.

"Expect my parents to arrive in the next few hours," Bill announced before leaving.

¨I'll go and take a shower then.¨

¨From the smell of it, you might take two!"

Steve simply smiled and went for a military shower. Once clean and dressed, he turned his attention to his man. He removed his shoes, jeans and socks and ran a washcloth over the exposed parts of his body before drying him off and folding the comforter over him.